The standard Etc/GMT+XXX timezones are confusing (sign is reversed in POSIX)

[Denis Karataev]

"Timezone mismatch
Your user's preference timezone does not match your browser timezone:
User's timezone
Etc/GMT+4 (-0400)
Browser's timezone
+0400"

Why Etc/GMT +4 is -0400? I think it's error and it must be +0400.

[David Deluria (dave-deluria)]

I can confirm this...

It seems if you set a timezone using Etc/GMT{+,-#value} the system doesn't recognize it.

A workaround is to use the actual country {continent/country} from the list of available values for it to properly recognize the TZ

[Fabrice (OpenERP) (fhe)]

To whomever is going to work on this, can you make the timezones list clearer? Right now, there are several lists of different types: Etc/xxx, Continent/City,... It is confusing for users especially considering the UTC+xxx is not always specified. I think we can do much easier. Just copy the Windows regional settings, it goes straight to the point.

[Denis Karataev (dskarataev)]

Fabrice is right.

[Denis Karataev (dskarataev)]

What about decision?

[Vidhin Mehta (OpenERP) (vme-openerp)]

In Etc/GMT+4 (-0400) , (-0400) indicates time diffence between GMT and Etc/GMT+4 or Other timezone.
For Example Etc/GMT+4 is 4 hour behind than standard GMT that's why it shows (-0400).

These diffence can check also from here http://www.gsp.com/support/virtual/admin/unix/tz/gmt/.

So its not an error, let me know if I misunderstood anything.

And comment #2 is valid point, may be consider as wishlist.

[Denis Karataev (dskarataev)]

But WHY GMT+4 is (-0400)?

It must be (+0400), not (-0400)!!!

[Denis Karataev (dskarataev)]

I think it shouldn't be at wishlist, because it's not a feature request, it's a bug!

[Mohammed Shekha(Open ERP) (msh-openerp)]

Hello All,

According to me Vidhin is right, this is not looks a bug instead ambiguity regardinbg timezone, you can go throug ftp://ftp.iana.org/tz/data/etcetera, or you can go through http://lists.debian.org/debian-user/2013/01/msg01133.html, here you can read about GMT+4 stands for 4 hours behind then GMT not GMT + 4 hours, and -0400 stands for OFFSET, The OFFSET specifies the time value you must add to the local time to get a Coordinated Universal Time value.

The details regarding eastern timezone one can get from above link.

Thanks.

[Kosenko Max (kosenko.max)]

In my opinion it's a usability problem that looks like bug to any user - user don't need to know offset, they choose timezone which is GMT+4 and it should mean what is common in almost every user application.

[Olivier Dony (Odoo) (odo-openerp)]

Hi,

As Vidhin mentioned, this is not a bug, this is how the POSIX standard defines these reserved Etc/GMT* timezones.

The warning message is perfectly correct and it helped you notice that you had chosen the wrong timezone.

Quoting http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tz_database#Area :
   "The special area of Etc is used for some administrative zones, particularly for "Etc/UTC" which represents Coordinated Universal Time. In order to conform with the POSIX style, those zone names beginning with "Etc/GMT" have their *sign reversed* from what most people expect. In this style, zones *west* of GMT have a *positive* sign and those *east* have a *negative sign* in their name (e.g "Etc/GMT-14" is 14 hours ahead/east of GMT.)"

See also /timezone/etcetera, e.g. at http://www.ietf.org/timezones/data/etcetera

Selecting these Etc/* timezones is also a mistake in the many places in the world that apply some form of Daylight Saving Time, because they have a fixed offset and no DST.

Users should instead use the location-based "floating" timezone, for example if you live in Sydney you should pick Australia/Sydney.

Now yes we could filter the "Etc/GMT*" values out but there might be good reasons to use them when you really need a fixed timezone offset. We also can't rename them, as we're simply using the standard timezones - changing that would cause all sorts of incompatibilities everywhere, these names are standardized. It's also not an option to use Windows names: they break compatibility with the rest of the world and are only valid on pure Windows platforms.

The best option I can see would be to push the "Etc/*" timezones to the very bottom of the list, so users would be less likely to pick them. This is a very low-priority improvement however, so a community contribution is the best way to make it progress. This would have to be done in the server itself, not in the web client, so I'm updating the project and status.

Thanks,

[Olivier Dony (Odoo) (odo-openerp)]

The improvement to move all the "Etc/*" confusing timezones at the end of the list has been merged in the 7.0 server branch at revision 4975 (revision-id: <email address hidden>). The rationale for this change is explained in comment #10.

Thanks for reporting!